Stop sending workers overseas: Amien

SURAKARTA, Central Java: People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais threw his weight behind growing calls for the government to suspend the sending of workers overseas following reports of the rape and abuse of Indonesian maids in Saudi Arabia.

He also backed demands for Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea to resign over his failure to protect Indonesian migrant workers.

"It is only logical for the House of Representatives to ask Jacob Nuwa Wea to step down. But for me, the most important thing is to temporarily halt the sending of Indonesian workers abroad for six months," Amien said on Saturday in Surakarta, Central Java.

He said the suspension was necessary to revise the regulations and recruitment system to protect Indonesians working overseas, so as to protect them from further mistreatment.

Without revised rules, Indonesian workers will continue to be treated like slaves, which is an insult to the nation, Amien said.

"I have seen Indonesian workers who have just returned from Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Their condition is extremely sorrowful. Some of them have been raped and had hydrochloric acid poured on them," he said.

Amien said that in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East, Indonesian workers suffered more than workers from other countries.

"This happens because other countries give extraordinary attention to their workers overseas." --Antara